1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a propping support for a chest, having a lid rest fastened on an inside of the lid of a chest, and a wall rest connected with a body of the chest, wherein the lid rest and the wall rest are connected by a support device which secures the lid of the chest in a flipped-open position.
2. Description of Related Art
In a propping support, one support rod is connected with the lid rest and another with the wall rest. The rods are connected together at their free ends via a hinge and a locking mechanism. With the chest lid open, the support rods are arranged in a position stretched toward each other. The locking mechanism prevents the chest from being closed. After the locking mechanism is released, the lid can be flipped down and the two support rods are moved toward each other with a scissor-like movement. While closing the chest there is a danger of crushing between the two support rods. Moreover, with these propping supports the chest lid drops in an uncontrolled manner if it slips out of the hand, in the course of which injuries can also occur.
It is one object of this invention to provide a propping support of the type mentioned at the outset, wherein the danger of an injury when the chest lid is operated is considerably reduced.
According to this invention, a propping support has a spring holder with a spring element. An actuating element, which is prestressed by a spring against the spring element, can be displaced in a guide between the two tilt positions of the chest lid when the lid of the chest is closed. The lid rest and the wall rest are coupled to the spring holder by swivel bearings.
With this embodiment, the lid rest and the wall rest are uncoupled from each other by means of the spring holder. This uncoupling assures that no scissor-like overlapping of components occurs when closing the chest lid and thus the crushing danger is considerably reduced. Because the chest list is closed against the force of the spring element, the weight of the chest lid can be cancelled, or at least reduced. This prevents the chest lid from having a potential to fall down in an uncontrolled manner during closing.
If the spring holder has a housing, into which the spring element and the actuator are inserted, the housing has a passage, through which the lid rest reaches into the interior of the housing, and the lid rest is connected to the actuator by a swivel bearing in the interior of the housing, then a possible danger of injury by the spring element is also reliably prevented.
In one embodiment of this invention, the spring holder has one or several guides embodied as slits or grooves, which are engaged by guide shoulders of the actuator.
To prevent the chest lid from performing a snapping closing movement aided by the spring element shortly before reaching its closed position, a propping support can be made so that the spring holder has a projection which is connected to the wall rest by means of a swivel bearing. The projection of the swivel bearing holds in the direction of the gravitational force below a connecting line formed between the hinge of the chest lid and the swivel bearing of the lid rest.
If the swivel bearing of the lid and/or the wall rest have spacers, which maintain the swivel bearing at a distance with respect to the inside of the chest lid and/or the inside of the chest wall, then no locations which hold the danger of injuries are created in transition areas between the spring holder and the chest lid, or respectively the chest wall.
In accordance with one preferred embodiment of this invention, the spring element is embodied as a helical spring, which is inserted in the housing of the spring holder, designed as a tube. The interior diameter of the tube is matched to the exterior diameter of the spring element. Thus the tube prevents the kinking of the spring element.
If the wall rest is fastened on the hinge side of the chest wall by the wall rest, it is possible to arrange the wall rest at a distance from the further chest wall adjoining the hinge side of the chest wall.